When life throws you curveballs, it's the strong and resilient who not only endure but reinvent themselves. This is exactly what Dr. Stephanie Pearson, MD did after a career-ending injury transformed her life, redirecting her path from a skilled OBGYN to a passionate advocate and entrepreneur. Joined by Stephanie, our conversation explores the resilience required to navigate the loss of one's professional identity and the birth of another. We delve into her emotional journey, shedding light on the often-ignored issue of mental health in the medical community and the critical need for supportive environments during these profound transitions.
Turning adversity into advocacy, Stephanie's venture into starting an insurance company emerged from her personal struggles. She exposes the vulnerabilities that physicians face, undereducated and often underinsured, and how her own experiences fueled her mission to protect her peers. The gratitude she's received in her newfound role starkly contrasts her years in clinical practice, hinting that perhaps this unexpected redirection was a hidden blessing. The conversation broadens to discuss Stephanie's commitment to empowering physicians through financial literacy and the establishment of support networks for those similarly displaced by injury or illness.
Finally, we conclude with the empowering message that we are more than our titles. This episode serves as a reminder to tap into the breadth of our abilities and experiences, as Stephanie encourages us to consider our multifaceted potential. Her courage and determination to make a difference, despite the hurdles, is a powerful inspiration. Join us for this heartfelt dialogue that's sure to resonate with anyone who has faced personal and professional challenges, as we celebrate the strength it takes to forge new paths and rediscover our purpose.
Connect with Dr. Pearson, MD:
https://pearsonravitz.com/
Though I am a physician, this is not medical advice. This is only a tool that physicians can use to get ideas on how to deal with burnout and/or know they are not alone. If you are in need of medical assistance talk to your physician.
Learn more about female physicians' journey through burnout to thriving!
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/books
Let's connect for speaking opportunities!
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/dr-shahhaque-md-as-a-speaker
Check out the free resources from The Worthy Physician:
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/freebie-downloads
Battle of the Boxes
21 Day Self Focus Journal
When life throws you curveballs, it's the strong and resilient who not only endure but reinvent themselves. This is exactly what Dr. Stephanie Pearson, MD did after a career-ending injury transformed her life, redirecting her path from a skilled OBGYN to a passionate advocate and entrepreneur. Joined by Stephanie, our conversation explores the resilience required to navigate the loss of one's professional identity and the birth of another. We delve into her emotional journey, shedding light on the often-ignored issue of mental health in the medical community and the critical need for supportive environments during these profound transitions.
Turning adversity into advocacy, Stephanie's venture into starting an insurance company emerged from her personal struggles. She exposes the vulnerabilities that physicians face, undereducated and often underinsured, and how her own experiences fueled her mission to protect her peers. The gratitude she's received in her newfound role starkly contrasts her years in clinical practice, hinting that perhaps this unexpected redirection was a hidden blessing. The conversation broadens to discuss Stephanie's commitment to empowering physicians through financial literacy and the establishment of support networks for those similarly displaced by injury or illness.
Finally, we conclude with the empowering message that we are more than our titles. This episode serves as a reminder to tap into the breadth of our abilities and experiences, as Stephanie encourages us to consider our multifaceted potential. Her courage and determination to make a difference, despite the hurdles, is a powerful inspiration. Join us for this heartfelt dialogue that's sure to resonate with anyone who has faced personal and professional challenges, as we celebrate the strength it takes to forge new paths and rediscover our purpose.
Connect with Dr. Pearson, MD:
https://pearsonravitz.com/
Though I am a physician, this is not medical advice. This is only a tool that physicians can use to get ideas on how to deal with burnout and/or know they are not alone. If you are in need of medical assistance talk to your physician.
Learn more about female physicians' journey through burnout to thriving!
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/books
Let's connect for speaking opportunities!
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/dr-shahhaque-md-as-a-speaker
Check out the free resources from The Worthy Physician:
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/freebie-downloads
Battle of the Boxes
21 Day Self Focus Journal
Welcome to another episode of the Worthy Physician. I am your host, dr Sapna Shah-Haque, reigniting humanity and your passion for medicine. Today I have Dr Stephanie Pearson, who has a different angle of transitioning out of medicine, but not by choice. I think that she's really going to shed some light on the darker side of medicine and how there are two sets of rules the rules that we have for patients and the rules that we have that are unspoken for physicians. I'm not going to say ourselves, because I don't really think that any of us would expect to be in a situation that she was in. So, stephanie, thank you for being on.
Dr. Pearson, MD:Thank you for having me.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:So currently you're not practicing medicine, correct, but it was not by choice. And so when you were practicing medicine by choice, what was your special? What specialty did you just fall in love with in medical school? What?
Dr. Pearson, MD:was your special. What specialty did you just fall in love with in medical school? That's actually a funny question. I practiced OBGYN for my clinical career. Taking the reason I'm laughing is I went to med school to be a pediatrician and I think, like most of us in our journey of med school, we change our minds a few times. And I did. It was my OB rotation was my last clinical rotation of third year. I did it by a hospital at a beach, thinking I would never want to do this. I'll do what I have to do and then I can be at the beach every day. And what I didn't realize was really how many opportunities there were to operate as an OBGYN. And I very quickly in med school shifted from peds to something surgical.
Dr. Pearson, MD:I knew I really liked using my hands and I remember calling my personal gynecologist to make an appointment to talk to him about residency. So I literally made up a symptom to get an appointment and when he walked in I just cried and said, dr Grover, I was all set to do orthopedics and now I want to do OBGYN and I don't know anybody and I haven't done any research and can you help me? And he was pivotal in helping to create a sub-I for me where I ended up matching. He left that practice during my residency and then called me to come work with him when I finished. So I had a fairy tale experience through residency and practice. Now my husband will tell you that I look at my past through rose-colored glasses and maybe I do. I'm sure that there were nights that I ended up in tears and didn't want to get woken up at two, three, four and five in the morning, but I like to hold on to the good memories that I have.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:Absolutely. I think that's a beautiful part, right, it's what we hold on to, and not looking at all the nights that we've been up, but also definitely those high points. I think that keep us going, because everybody knows in medicine, no matter what area you practice in, there are so many peaks and valleys. So what happened that forced your hand Because this was not something that you had a decision-making part in.
Dr. Pearson, MD:No, I actually had that image in my head that I was going to be that octogenarian at the OR who had a massive MI and went out in style. But instead I was called to do a precipitous delivery and unfortunately my patient did not or was not able to get anesthesia because she showed up complete. Get anesthesia because she showed up complete. And normally if somebody is not, let's say, totally engaged in how to birth, I have been known to say have your baby and I'll fix the carnage right. It's called labor, not a walk in the park.
Dr. Pearson, MD:Unfortunately, I looked down and the baby's heart rate was critical. I had six nurses in the room. She was much larger than I and as I was delivering the baby, I got kicked twice in the shoulder. The first time was straight onto my brachial plexus. My arm went numb. I shifted my body, I started crying as I got the baby's widest part of its abdomen out. I got kicked a second time and this time was across my shoulder and I felt a pop. It hurt a lot. I put the baby on mom's belly Healthy baby, healthy mommy. But I left the room in tears and called one of my partners to come down and finish the delivery.
Dr. Pearson, MD:And I'll make a very long story short. I ended up with a torn labrum, was really dismissed by my first orthopedist, developed a frozen shoulder, had surgery, went to sleep getting told I'd be back to work in 12 weeks. I woke up getting told that it looked like a bomb went off in my shoulder. I was probably not getting back. And August 3rd of this year marked 10 years away from clinical medicine. My hospital terminated me the day that my FMLA was up because, even though I had been cleared to do office GYN as tolerated, it did say in my contract that I needed to be able to do 100% of my duties. And once I got terminated I was told by multiple malpractice insurers that I was uninsurable because my orthopedist put in black and white that I was a liability due to the limitations of my shoulder. So I learned a lot the hard way, real fast.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:So you're telling me that. So the pen has power. The pen has power and that made you uninsurable because of limitations, and it was never, was it ever? Let's see what space we can create for Dr Pearson, even as oversight or teaching or strategic.
Dr. Pearson, MD:Nothing, and all of those things were things that I felt like I had to offer. I had gotten teaching awards, I loved educating the residents who wanted to learn, and even if I couldn't physically do certain things, I could certainly talk them through it. I had been asked to be the chairperson of our department before I went out. I had been asked to be the chairperson of our department before I went out. So to this day I feel like I'd still be there if I had been given the chance, if I had been given the opportunity and instead I was turning 40 and lost my entire identity.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:So how did you work through that? That's a big blow on multiple levels. Not just we tend to embody who we are and link that completely, almost to our profession. A lot of it is because I think we study so long and hard for that and then we're just immersed in it we eat, sleep and breathe it. So how did you get through that? Or is that just something that it's a daily occurrence.
Dr. Pearson, MD:No, it was a lot of work In the beginning. I was in therapy almost every day. Thankfully, I had an incredibly supportive husband and two little ones who understood, but not really. They just liked having mom around and at one point I was suicidal. I wrote my husband and boys letters because I was very narrowly thinking about finances. I was the primary breadwinner. I'd always promised my husband that I would make money. I'm the primary breadwinner. I'd always promised my husband that I would make money. I'm not a good housewife. We would have to pay for a cleaner.
Dr. Pearson, MD:And now I was not successful as a physician, I was not successful as a wife. I felt like I was not successful as a mom. I couldn't pick my kids up. There were activities I couldn't do and I was worth a lot dead and not as much alive on disability, because that's a whole nother story. And my husband brought home a puppy and I thought he was insane and I hated him for it at the time. But he said the boys and I are not enough to get you out of bed. You have a choice you can be surrounded by filth or you can get out of bed and start taking care of something again. And it sounds incredibly trite, but I found myself at the dog park. I was Kim's mom.
Dr. Pearson, MD:Most of the people didn't even know my name, let alone that I was an OBGYN who wasn't practicing anymore. I don't know if you've ever been to a dog park. Everybody knows the dogs, everybody. And it allowed me to step back a little bit, get out of my own way and start to talk to people again, just as people which again I know sounds odd, but so many of my friends were physicians and so many of our acquaintances were physicians. And, to be quite honest.
Dr. Pearson, MD:Going back to something you mentioned earlier, physicians were some of the meanest people to me in the beginning because I have an invisible disability, so they would look at me and say, but you look fine? Or kick me in the shoulder. Medicine's a shit show. Lucky for you, you're out, and I don't necessarily think people meant to be hurtful. I think a lot of it stems from not really knowing what to say. But I do think that there's this tyranny of perfection that exists in medicine that we're supposed to be tougher than stronger than more resilient than right. We're robotic, right. We eat when we can, we pee when we can. It's all go patient.
Dr. Pearson, MD:And I truly felt like I was not given the same compassion or grace that our sick patients had and it was really hurtful and I lost a lot of people that I thought were my friends, who just didn't believe that I really couldn't do the stuff I couldn't do and I was like, why would I make this up? I'm not home going to tennis and golf lessons, I'm going to physical therapy, a psychiatrist, I have chronic pain. You don't want me delivering your wife, your sister or your daughter. I knew what was ethical and not ethical and that was a really hurtful time and I felt very conflicted because I knew that there were people that were leaving medicine because they were mentally, physically, emotionally burnt out.
Dr. Pearson, MD:And I know that there were physicians who left medicine by choice. Right, I'm going to switch over to pharma or I'm going to do research. Whatever, I didn't fit in either camp. I was like this lone island, trying to figure out where do I fit, who's my people, what do I do next? Right, and it was really lonely. It probably took me a good three years, I would say, to really get out of my own way.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:I'm glad you're still here with us and I'm glad you did get out of your own way, in the sense of that's just a lot to process. Again, you didn't have it. It wasn't by choice. That's a big kick in the head. No, probably Because you didn't fit a certain mold that you weren't able to perform the robotic you and deliver in the office. But there are so many different capacities, like you mentioned, with the skills that you take, from being a physician and medical school training to pharma or to advise on different aspects. You still had that and that could have been used to their advantage. That's how I felt.
Dr. Pearson, MD:I very much felt like I was just tossed aside Once. I couldn't produce for the hospital system. It just piles on and you really start to question everything. And if it were not for my husband and a couple of very good friends, I'm not sure I'd still be here, and I'm glad I am too. I I have a whole new appreciation for physician suicide in that I know that I was irrational. I know now that I have more to offer than dollar signs, right. But when you're in that it's really hard to see the big picture. And even from changing narratives of someone committed suicide to someone died by suicide I think changes the stigma around it and the physicians who are taking their own lives. We shouldn't be victimizing the victim after the fact, and I know that's not really what we were talking about today, but I just think it's important to bring up agree with you more, because the whole reason why this podcast was started was I lost my best friend to suicide.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:She died from suicide in her office in the summer of 2019.
Dr. Pearson, MD:I am so sorry.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:No, thank you, but the thing is I'm happier here and I thank you for highlighting that and last month we had National Physician Suicide Awareness Day, and we have it for a reason. One of my questions to you is did you feel safe trying to seek help Because you've been this gray space of not practicing anymore again not by your choice, but you're not practicing anymore. So did you feel like that helped to remove some of the stigma?
Dr. Pearson, MD:I don't know if it was even a conscious decision to get help. My husband was very pivotal in all of that. There's no way that I would be here without the intense therapy that I had. Did I feel safe? I don't really think I thought about it at the time. I was very much in catastrophe mode so I can't even say honestly that I thought about what was next at that time. So I don't really know how to answer that. I don't think it was a conscious feeling.
Dr. Pearson, MD:I know now, speaking to a lot of physicians in what I do now, that there's this concern of seeking help because of the repercussions in medicine. Right, do we have to say it every time we fill out new credentialing? Does it attach a new stigma? And I will always tell people and this is somewhat anecdotal, but I truly want to believe that those of us that are seeking the care that we need, are seek care and are self-medicating or are self-deprecating that end up in trouble. People get the care you need. We have so many pressures on us every day. We need to have a vent. Even with malpractice cases, right, we get told we're not supposed to talk to anybody. I've been deposed a few times. I'm an OB. Right, it's horrible getting told that you can't talk to anybody, so you have to have a safe place.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:Yeah, it's definitely one of the most isolating possibilities or encounters, I think, as a physician, because you can't talk to anybody, because it's all discoverable depending on which avenue you look at. Or maybe you can talk to somebody, but it's going to be a physician that has ties to the insurance companies. That's really, that's a joke. That's a real joke.
Dr. Pearson, MD:I am very fortunate, still to this day, that I have had therapists and psychiatrists who specialize or cater to the physician space, and so it's not even just their physicians. We're physicians. We've gone through the same crap it's. They're listening to physicians day in and day out and you realize that we're all going through the same crap.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:Yes, yes, and that's. It's sad that we had to go through that much crap and no matter what specialty you're in, but I think some are more liable than others, such as OB-GYN, and I just really again, I'm just really still happy that you're here, whatever it took, and you're still able to have your family, you're still able to provide for your family and you mentioned, with what you're doing now, what exactly is that?
Dr. Pearson, MD:So it's going to sound weird, but I started an insurance company. I learned a lot the hard way about disability and life insurance after I got hurt and I thought I did everything the right way. But it was purely a function of I didn't know what I didn't know and I didn't feel properly educated or advocated for. And I became really passionate about changing the industry and changing the face of the industry and started lecturing to area residency programs partly for catharsis and partly for altruism, if I'm going to be honest. And then people started asking for my help and so my husband was like, hey, maybe this is what you're supposed to be doing. And it's weird.
Dr. Pearson, MD:I've been doing this now for about seven years. I have a business partner, Pearson Rabbits just turned six this summer. I had done it for a little bit by myself, and I get thanked more now than I did when I was practicing, which is weird and crazy, but just reiterates that it was something that we needed, and so I don't know. I don't know, Depending on what day you ask me. Did this happen for a reason? Was this supposed to be my path? I like to think so, because it gets me out of bed in the morning. Everyone has their own beliefs on that stuff, but I'm sticking to it.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:So when you say you started an insurance company, I'm interested what is? How did you take your experience and translate that into insurance? Because as a physician, yeah, I have disability insurance, life insurance, long-term care insurance and medical malpractice. But how is this different from the traditional insurance experience?
Dr. Pearson, MD:Okay. So a lot of it stemmed from me getting screwed. I found out that our hospital's group policy in fine print for disability didn't cover work-related injuries, so I was flatly denied and told I would have been better off had I fallen off my bike. Then I found out that the private policies that my senior partner made me get when I first became an attending I didn't really know about it as a resident were good, but they weren't exactly what I should have had. I have two policies, both with shortcomings. They were enough that we didn't have to sell our house, but I was really underinsured and didn't have all the right pieces to the puzzle. I also found out that I was grossly overinsured for life insurance, which goes back to my mentality of I was worth more to them dead.
Dr. Pearson, MD:I went to a conference called SEEK. I have no financial relationship to them, but it's a wonderful conference. It's held every year, I want to say, in about October in Chicago and it is purely for physicians who are trying to find non-clinical work. And I went in 2016, so three years after my exit and it was so eye-opening to see how many jobs, employment opportunities there were for physicians outside of clinical medicine. I had always thought my God, what do we do if we can't practice? We're like overeducated and underemployable. And while none of the jobs per se resonated, there was a woman and I apologize that I don't remember her name, but she made a comment during her talk about how everyone has a story and everyone has knowledge that could potentially help other people.
Dr. Pearson, MD:And if you really dig down and kind of brain dump, like scribble out, all the things that you think you can do or can share. Then, if you're passionate about it, you should be able to make a go of it. And I remember coming home from that conference and looking at my husband and saying you know what I'm really passionate about? Disability insurance. How weird, but it's not being done the right way and I can't be the only physician in this position and I love educating. Let me get back to educating and not be salesy, like I still. Yes, I'm an insurance broker. Yes, I'm talking about things that people should purchase, but our company is built on the idea of education and advocacy and I think that, in and of itself, has led to our success.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:So you're not just trying to sell it. You're not trying to sell a product. You're trying to educate the individual, the physician, on what they need, and you have experience to back that up, saying, hey look, I was in your position. I don't want you to get held in this similar position, almost like a financial hostage situation, right, kind of yeah.
Dr. Pearson, MD:And, yes, ultimately I want the people that we're educating to work with us, but at the end of the day, no company has the infrastructure to take care of a million physicians. So I want to know that, even if you don't come work with our company, that you're empowered and armed with the right knowledge to not get taken advantage of, to not get taken advantage of. We are just really easy pickings right. We are so focused, we're so narrowly tunneled into getting through med school, getting through residency, starting your practice right. We don't get taught how to be adults, we don't get taught a lot about financial literacy. It's changing and I think the last five to 10 years have been great on that front, but we're still not where I think we should be.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:I couldn't agree with you more. I know that in residency I think we had one life insurance and disability insurance lecture per year and same company, not exactly somebody I would trust, just with the vibes I got. Again, it was very salesy and I understand that they might work with physicians or they might talk to physicians, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they understand that, like exactly what you've been through, exactly what your needs were, and so what better than to discuss with the physician that has been on both sides is not really taken into heart. These days it's more of sell, sell, forget who needs what or what happens at the end of the day, as long as it meets the bottom line. So there's ethics behind what you're doing.
Dr. Pearson, MD:I like to think so. Yes, that is really the reason we started this company and continue to do what we do, and sometimes it's harder than others. A lot of hospital systems, their GME office, the CME office they just don't want sales people coming in, and so sometimes it's a little bit hard to get through that door and be like, look, when I'm speaking as Dr Pearson, I'm like Switzerland. Do I have to disclose who and what I am? Of course I do, but I'm not talking about one particular thing.
Dr. Pearson, MD:I'm truly being Switzerland and going through each piece and what's important, what's not important, what may be important to you may not be important to somebody else, and so I think that's been one hurdle, but I'm going to keep pushing.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:I love your spirit and, yeah, I'm rooting for you because just again, it is taking what you went through and turning it into something to try to bring back that ethical piece. So can people reach you on social media or even on the web.
Dr. Pearson, MD:So I was not smart enough to come up with an alias many moons ago. So I am, in fact, stephanie Pearson on all sources. I have a personal and company. So Facebook this is terrible. I should know this off the top of my head. Stephanie Pearson is my personal. There's a Pearson Rabbits, there is on Instagram, I believe there's three. I think there's Stephanie Pearson, dr Stephanie Pearson and Pearson Rabbits LinkedIn. I am Stephanie Pearson and if you Google Pearson Rabbits, it'll bring you to our website. I think I am more accessible now, probably even than when I was practicing, and I also, just because of your specific listenership, I have created a secret, private Facebook group called Physicians for Physicians, which is just for physicians who, because of injury or illness, have had to change their scope of practice or leave medicine. I vet every single person. I have tried and will continue to try to keep it the safest place possible. We have men, women, all ages, different processes, and it was really born out of the fact that I felt like I had no support.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:And so if anybody's listening, please reach out to me. Oh, thank you for that, because, after you sharing your story, I do think that is a population that is overlooked, because life happens and you didn't ask for any of this, but you did it, doing what you loved, right, and I would do it again.
Dr. Pearson, MD:Yeah, I've gotten over the bitterness of the hospital because I was like if I didn't let myself get hurt, there'd be potentially a compromised baby or a baby that didn't get to go home, and then they would have spent millions defending me in court. If I had to do it again, I would do the same thing I did, right. We're supposed to help people and take care of people. So the way I look at it is, I got to practice what I loved for almost 10 years, and now life has taken me in a different direction.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:I appreciate your outlook and I know that you've done a lot of healing, hopefully, through the years, and I'm sure it was a journey, like you said, about three years. I'm still a work in progress. I say it all the time I am better at living through therapy and pharmacology.
Dr. Pearson, MD:I'm not embarrassed, I don't feel stigmatized. I need to be the best me that I can show up as every day, and I don't think I'm ever not going to be in therapy, and I'm okay with that.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:Yeah, and I think that's beautiful because you recognize the humanity within you and that you're not a robot. But going back to one of the opening statements and even talking before the podcast, there seems to be this set of rules that we have for patients and that we have for physicians, and it's we prescribe, but we can't. There are barriers to accessing it ourselves, some of the barriers we had talked about previously during the episode. But then also I really want to go back to when you had friends that were saying you look fine, fine and just that's not a response of compassion, because I'm sorry that there was lack of compassion just because you didn't have a visible injury, because I don't think any of that would be welcomed in the exam room at all.
Dr. Pearson, MD:No, there were days that I wished I was in a cast or a sling or had a bright scarlet letter on my forehead. I spent a lot of time defending myself and in a space where I was already hurting, I would say, okay, raise your hand up and okay, this is how high I can get my arm. And oh, hey, I have to get bras that snap in the front because I physically can't snap them in the back right. And I would just keep coming up with defense mechanisms of going through these motions and at one point I was just like I can't keep doing this. This is not good for me. And so when people made comments, I just sometimes I told them what I really thought and not suitable for airwaves. And sometimes I was like, look, you're not going to find pictures of me doing cartwheels at the beach, Like I can't do things with my left arm. And all of the things that I used to enjoy were very physical. I was a mountain climber, I did martial arts, I skydived, I scuba dove. I can't do those things. It wasn't like I was suddenly this lady who did lunch, right, and I think that was part of the misconception was that people thought, oh, now she's home and living this grand life.
Dr. Pearson, MD:And I will also say I have the utmost respect for stay-at-home moms. I am not one. I am not made to be one. I used to actually say the old adage I'd give my left arm to be home with my boys more. Turns out, I gave my left arm to be home with my boys, more they were. I gave my left arm to be home with my boys more they were four and six and after about six weeks I was ready to kill everybody. That's just, it's not in my DNA and it's not even who I want. To be honest, I love my kids. It's not what I wanted. To be right. I wanted to be an OBGYN in the hospital doing all the things and having people who I thought loved me, respected me, questioning what was happening was really painful.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:I can't imagine that, Especially from the ones that are like in our inner circle, and even physicians you another doc who sold out and I looked at him and I said do you want to hear my story real quick?
Dr. Pearson, MD:And he came over and I can tell my story now, in two minutes. And he looked at me and he said oh, I guess I'm an a-hole. And I was like you said it. I was like I didn't sell out, I didn't burn out no offense to everyone who's burnt out, I don't mean it that way, it's just the way that it hit me that moment from that doc and I was like you're right, you were being an a-hole and I hope you give your patients a little more grace. So it's been 10 years and I still get it.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:So it's been 10 years and I still that it's daunting. It's something we all need, but it's daunting and it's very. Sometimes it can be overwhelming even for a physician who's pretty educated, but we also know that we're not always the most savvy. So just thanks for bringing your expertise to that and really helping our fellow physicians. So thank you.
Dr. Pearson, MD:Thank you for having me. I'm really honored and my heart goes out to all the docs who do feel burnt out and who are not living the lives that they wanted to live, and I hope that, by sharing my story, that there's at least some positive outlook and there is life after medicine, and I think a lot of us get stuck in. This is it, and I hope that sharing my story can help some of the listeners.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:Absolutely, and the links for social media and your site will be in the show notes. One question I ask everybody is what's one last pearl of wisdom?
Dr. Pearson, MD:you would leave the listeners oh God, I feel like it's always a different pearl with different subgroups. I think that the pearl really is that everyone has a story and everyone has knowledge that other people would find beneficial. And if you're struggling with practicing or you're struggling at home, sit down with a piece of paper and just start brain dumping what do I know? And I know that sounds super hyperbolic, but I think that if you can take the time to really just sit with yourself, you'll find your niche and your story.
Dr. Shah-Haque, MD:Thank you for that. So for the listener, sit down, create some time for yourself and start releasing those ideas on paper, because it will shed so much light that you're more than just a physician. You're more than just whatever hat or hats you think you wear. We have a lot of transitional and translatable skills and we are complex human beings, so let's tap into that resource. Stephanie, again, thank you so much for being here and thanks for having me. If you have enjoyed this episode, click subscribe, share it with a friend, because we could all use a little bit of normalizing the topic of burnout, knowing that we're not alone.